MARE was established in 2000 by the Universiteit van Amsterdam,
Amsterdam Institute for Metropolitan and International Development
Studies (AMIDSt) and the Amsterdam School for Social Science Research
(ASSR) and SISWO (Netherlands Institute for Social Science Research).
In 2001 The chairgroup of Rural Development Sociology (RDS) of
Wageningen University and Research Centre (WUR) became a partner in
MARE. In December 2007 the Environmental Policy Group (ENP) and the Law and Governance Group (LAW) of Wageningen Universtity also became partners of MARE.

Currently MARE is affiliated with the AISSR – the Amsterdam Institute for Social Science Reserch (including the former AMIDST and ASSR) and ENP.